Annaliese walking

It is finally working for me to upload a video. Here is Annaliese on December 8th, about 2 weeks after her birthday, practicing her walking skills. As you will see, one way we would get Annaliese to practicing walking was to throw things across the room for her to go and get. Basically, fetch. She loves to carry her clothes around after I change her. Sometimes she even puts them on her head and walks around the room giggling. Such a silly girl! I haven't been able to catch that on tape yet, but I'm working on it. In this video she is carrying a onsie and fetching her socks. She is walking much more now, but still takes tumbles especially when she gets going too fast. When it is more convenient, crawling is the preferred method of transportation. And of course, she is always barefoot in the house. Annaliese does NOT like shoes or socks! This is turning out to be somewhat of a problem now that winter is here. Thank goodness for footy pajamas and boots!

Sitting on Santa's Lap

We took Annaliese to see Santa and as you can see, she was NOT a big fan! I don't think Santa took it personally, though. We did get a cute picture of all of us with Santa and Annaliese was much happier in that picture, because I was holding her and not Santa. Grandma Marlene has that one on her camera. For now, you just get to see a very unhappy little girl on Santa's lap. And we were such BAD parents because we just kept snapping pictures. I still think she looks cute, even with her sad face! :-)

Annaliese's 1st Birthday

Annaliese had her first Birthday on November 26, 2008. We had 2 celebrations. The first was a small celebration on her actual birthday and the second was the day after on Thanksgiving with the whole family. Annaliese enjoyed every single minute of each celebration. She loved eating cake, loved opening presents, and loved putting the bows on her head. I baked her cake and Chris designed the butterfly and decorated it. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out! Good job Daddy! We had so much fun! Annaliese's cousins, Lilah and Mia, even got to help open presents on Thanksgiving. Mia and Annaliese practiced walking together too, thanks to "Aunt" Alana. Shortly after, Annaliese began walking on her own. First just a few steps here and there, but now she is taking lots of steps all over. It's so cute to see her walking around the house. I can't believe how fast our baby girl is growing up. We are looking forward to Christmas to open more presents. Annaliese loves the pretty paper!

I LOVE my big brother!

Annaliese was playing peaks and looking SO CUTE under her bib. Look at that smile! She is such a flirt!

We were so excited when Gabe called us and told us he was in town. They decided at the last minute to hop in the car and drive down. He came to visit us just about every night while he was here. They are leaving again on Sunday and won't be back until the day after Christmas. As you can see, Gabe had long hair one day, and came over the next day with a brand new haircut. Doesn't he look handsome?! We LOVE his new look and so does he. Annaliese loves him to pieces either way. She was so happy to see her big brother. He got lots of hugs and kisses!

Soooo HANDSOME and soooo CUTE!

Pumpkins!

We sat Annaliese in the front yard and surrounded her with pumpkins. I started snapping pictures and ended up with some really cute ones. These are just a few of the many that I took that day.

Halloween!

Annaliese wore her pumpkin shirt from cousin Lilah to the sitter's house during the day. The girls, Annaliese, Lilah and Mia, were the 3 little pigs later that evening. We visited the family to show off their cute costumes. They really were the cutest 3 little pigs EVER!

Swim Lessons at the YMCA

We've had Annaliese in swim lessons since she was about 8 months old. She LOVES to swim. She spent a lot of time swimming this summer at Grandma and Grandpa's house too. These are just some pictures at her lessons. Daddy and I take her on Saturday mornings. Usually Daddy does laps while we play. Last week Daddy took her in and I took pictures because I was sick. That is why there is only one of me with Annaliese. That one is actually from the week before.

Braeutigam's Orchard

We went pumpking picking at Brauetigam's and Annaliese got to feed the goats. She also had her first taste of an Apple Cider slush. Yum!

September 2008

Here are some updated pictures, Finally! The pool pictures are from Labor Day at Grandma and Grandpa Lockwood's house. We were all celebrating Grandpa Ernie being home from the hopsital. As you can see, he even got into the pool! Grandma and Grandpa Jacob were visiting from Michigan too. Annaliese was just a little over 9 months old there. The others are more recent.

As you can see, Annaliese likes to crawl into Gus' kennel and play with his bones. She is now 10 months old. She crawls, pulls herself up and walks along the furniture, talks baby talk like crazy, and is getting cuter by the minute. We just love her more and more each day. She now has 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom. The list goes on and on. I am WAY behind with my postings. There are lots more I could include from this summer. For now, this will have to do.

Here is Annaliese in her Bumbo seat for the first time on March 15th. She seemed to like it.

On March 1st, Annaliese got her first tooth. She was only 3 months and 4 days old! We discovered it that morning while she was hanging out and playing in bed with us. Shortly after that on March 10th she got her second tooth. I tried to get a close up of each but it is hard to see.

Here is Annaliese visiting Great Grandma's house on February 18th. Great Grandma Mary lou was so happy she got to hold and feed Annaliese. We had a good time!

Cousin Lilah's house

Cousin Mia and cousin Annaliese visited cousin Lilah's house on February 17th for a play date and photo session. Mia was almost 4 monts old, Annaliese was almost 3 monts old and Lilah was 9 months old. Here are just a few pictures of the fun times we had.

Visiting Family and Friends in Chicago

We went to Chicago in February to visit family and friends. The first picture is Annaliese with her Aunt Cheryl. We stayed at my best friend Lisa and her husband Matt's house. The next few pictures are of my godson, John (16 months) Annaliese (2 1/2 months) and Eric (9 years old).